Booking Through Thursday: Who Taught You To Read?

I’ve been thinking it over, and I don’t actually remember. I remember recognizing words when my parents read me stories and poems. Specifically, I remember recognizing the word “soup,” in the Random House collection of children’s poems illustrated by Jack Prelutsky. Learning to read wasn’t a big event. My parents and family and everyone I knew read to me, and sprawled to read their own books. I grew up going to libraries and bookstores.

My mother doesn’t remember when or how I learned to read, either. Whenever my parents and I went somewhere and they wanted to keep me busy, she took along a massive bag stuffed with picture books and paper and crayons. She gradually noticed that I wasn’t flipping through the pages of my picture books or Highlights magazines (remember those?) as fast as I used to. And then she asked me what a story was about, and I told her.